"Diana Wynne Jones - Castle In The Air" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

"I prefer you to every single one of these. Some of these look far too
proud of themselves, and some look selfish and cruel. You are unassuming
and kind. I intend to ask my father to marry me to you, instead of to
the Prince in Ochinstan. Would you mind?"

The garden seemed to swirl around Abdullah in a blur of gold and silver
and dusky green. "I-I think that might not work," he managed to say at
last.

"Why not?" she asked. "Are you married already?"
"No, no," he said. "It is not that. The law allows a man to have as many
wives as he can afford, but-"

The frown came back to Flower-in-the-Night's forehead. "How many
husbands are women allowed?" she asked.

"Only one!" Abdullah said, rather shocked.

"That is extremely unfair," Flower-in-the-Night observed musingly. She
sat on the bank and thought. "Would you say it is possible that the
Prince in Ochinstan has some wives already?"

Abdullah watched the frown grow on her forehead and the slender fingers
of her right hand tapping almost irritably on the turf. He knew he had
indeed started something. Flower-in-the-Night was discovering that her
father had kept her ignorant of a number of important facts. "If he is a
prince," Abdullah said rather nervously, "I think it entirely possible
that he has quite a number of wives. Yes."

"Then he is being greedy," Flower-in-the-Night stated. "This takes a
weight off my mind. Why did you say that my marrying you might not work?
You mentioned yesterday that you are a prince as well."

Abdullah felt his face heating up, and he cursed himself for babbling
out his daydream to her. Though he told himself that he had had every
reason to believe he was dreaming when he told her, this did not make
him feel any better. "True. But I also told you I was lost and far from
my kingdom," he said. "As you might con

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jecture, I am now forced to make my living by humble means. I sell
carpets in the Bazaar of Zanzib. Your father is clearly a very rich man.
This will not strike him as a fitting alliance."

Flower-in-the-Night's fingers drummed quite angrily. "You speak as if it
is my father who intends to marry you!" she said. "What is the matter? I
love you. Do you not love me?"

She looked into Abdullah's face as she said this. He looked back into